


You're an effort in translation

by Yuu_chi



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: College, Fluff and Humor, Future Fic, M/M, Minimal volleyball, Slight Misunderstandings, The boys are awkward dorks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-26
Updated: 2014-12-26
Packaged: 2018-03-03 16:40:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2857679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yuu_chi/pseuds/Yuu_chi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Living with Hinata is a better idea in theory than in practice.</p><p>Or; Kageyama is stupidly in love and Hinata is "accidentally" irresistible</p>
            </blockquote>





	You're an effort in translation

**Author's Note:**

  * For [aroceu](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aroceu/gifts).



Three weeks into living with Hinata Kageyama realized he’d made a terrible mistake.

It’d made sense at the time. They were going to the same university, living in the same dorm, playing on the same team (naturally) and somewhere along the three years that were highschool they’d sort of maybe became best friends when Kageyama wasn’t looking.

So when they’d been accepted by the same school Kageyama had put Hinata down as his roommate without a second thought because occasionally having screaming matches over volleyball at three in the morning was probably going to be better than living with a complete stranger who didn’t understand that Kageyama’s priorities in life started and ended with volleyball.

(Sentences that didn’t contain the word at least twice in their make-up made him uncomfortable.)

What he didn’t anticipate though was… _this_.

Hinata; coming out of the bathroom shirtless and wet. Hinata; watching a whole lot of Disney movies when he was meant to be writing essays and crying quietly to himself even though _he was eighteen and nobody died in anything rated for children_. Hinata; asleep on Kageyama’s bed when he came back from late classes and blinking owlishly awake to smile at him with a mouth too wide and eyes too crinkly and –

Kageyama took in a deep breath and eased open the hand that was slowly crushing the drink box between his fingers. Strawberry milk trickled down his shaking knuckles and Hinata who was sprawled out on the bed – _Kageyama’s bed, why was it always Kageyama’s bed_ – looked up from the textbook he was reading to squint at him.

There was something scribbled in the margins and when Kageyama looked closer it was – _oh god give him the strength equivalent to the torment he was going through and the hard-on he was liable to have tonight._

“Are you alright?” Hinata garbled from around the highlighter jammed in his mouth. “You look… kind of murderous.”

Kageyama gritted his teeth back and forth but didn’t answer because sometime in the past _thirty seconds_ Hinata had started rolling the highlighter about his mouth like it was fucking lollipop or something and wet stationery really shouldn’t be as attractive as that, but it was and –

“I’m going out,” Kageyama blurted, getting to his feet so fast that his desk chair skidded away messily behind him to slam into Hinata’s empty bed. “I’m just – fresh air – volleyball – stuff…”

He fled the room with a red face, tight pants and Hinata's mouth wide and enticingly open behind him.

.

Kageyama had been in love with Hinata since the tail-end of first year high school and been aware of it from somewhere around the start of the second.

Originally, it hadn’t been much of a problem. A little mortifying to start with, but it wasn’t like Kageyama hadn’t dealt with mortification before. Nobody was going to _know_ about it, it’d just be a bunch of annoyingly distracting feelings buzzing around in his head.

Now and then he might have stopped to stare at Hinata, or lean in a little bit too much when Hinata sat down next to him, and yeah, occasionally he had thoughts that were… a little more than strictly platonic.

That stuff though? That didn’t change much. Kageyama could manage _that_ at least. It wasn’t going to affect his relationship with Hinata, and, more importantly, it wasn’t going to affect his relationship with the team.

Kageyama had worked too long and too hard to let that happen.

The real problems began when the dreams did.

It wasn’t like Kageyama had never had a – god, the word made him itchy somehow  _but_ – wet dream before. He was fifteen. They were annoying and frustrating, but they _happened_.

It was when he woke up one morning with his underwear damp and Hinata’s face at the back of his mind that things took a bit of a turn for the worst. _Oh crap_ , he remembered thinking and he’d come a bare inch away from skipping school that day.

(He didn’t though, because then he wouldn’t get to go to practice after school, and the thought alone made him more anxious than anything else, including the knowledge that he was more than a little in love and slightly attracted to his best friend.)

After that he was a virtual downward spiral.

Everything Hinata did made him squirm. He snorted milk out of his nose at lunch one day and Kageyama’s first thought was _how can he be so adorable_?

Kageyama had it so bad it was practically terminal, and there wasn’t a soul on the team he was going to talk to about it. He could imagine that would go over real well.

So he’d done about the only thing he could think of in his near desperation.

He’d called Oikawa.

And he’d just kept on calling him since.

.

“Tobio, it is four in the morning.”

The fact that’s Oikawa’s voice only reached about a five out of ten on a scale of obnoxious cheerfulness told Kageyama that he probably had about six seconds to make his point before Oikawa hung-up on him and left him to face his torture alone.

“Please help me, he’s doing this thing with his mouth and he’s not wearing a shirt and he’s on my bed and I caught him drawing doodles of _me_ in the margin of his textbook and _I really, really don’t know what to do_.”

Kageyama sounded like he was one more word away from breaking down into a pile of dysfunctional goop, but that was about how he _felt_ anyway so…

The other end of the line was silent for a moment. Somewhere behind him there was the sound of a door rattling shut loudly and Kageyama jumped a little, because he didn’t want it to be getting around campus that Kageyama Tobio was having whispered conversations on his phone out in the corridor at ungodly hours of the morning.

“Why is he on your bed?” Oikawa asked after a pregnant pause, and the casual lilt of his voice was back. “Tobio, is there something you need to tell me? Are congratulations in order?”

Kageyama’s face felt unnaturally hot and he deliberately ignored the last several words out of Oikawa’s mouth. “It’s just… something he does. I don’t know. _He has his own perfectly good bed_.”

“Then _why_ is he using yours?”

“He says the light is better. I asked him if he wanted to trade beds but he – never mind, that’s not – _help me_.”

Oikawa sighed. “It’s been over two years. Not that I don’t love hearing my cute little junior beg me for help like that, but surely you know how to handle things yourself by now.”

Kageyama didn’t. Not at all. If dealing with having a debilitating crush on your best friend was supposed to get easier with time, then Kageyama was probably doing it wrong.

“I can’t ask him to get off my bed and stop playing with things in his mouth,” Kageyama hissed, which was probably the only way of dealing with it he had.

“Then learn to admire it without coming in your damn pants,” Oikawa said. “ _Goodnight,_ Tobio.”

“No, wait –.”

The line clicked flat and Kageyama was left feeling even worse than when the call had started.

.

Classes were about the only time of day that Kageyama could get away from Hinata.

Not that he didn’t like spending time with him. Kageyama might have been suffering from a severe case of ‘ _I’m hopelessly in love with you and everything you do makes it difficult to function’_ but he’d at least managed to learn how to deal with _that_ without compromising their friendship.

All the same though, Kageyama ate, slept and volleyball-ed with Hinata. He virtually existed in all three major parts of Kageyama’s life. A little break now and then wasn’t exactly a bad thing.

That being said –

“ _Dude_ ,” the guy sitting next to him remarked under his breath when he saw the bright red numbers scrawled atop Kageyama’s latest essay. “You totally bombed.”

He’d never spoken to that guy a day in his life but –

He was sort of right.

 _See me after class_ , was the icing on the cake, frosted in chilly blue pen beneath Kageyama’s petulant 23%.

He was sort of lucky that this was his worst class anyway. He could deal with one failed test.

(The night before the test Hinata had fallen asleep on Kageyama’s bed and nothing on god’s green earth could have possibly woken him. His shirt had been higher than his bellybutton and his shorts had been hanging so low on his hips that Kageyama had been terrified he’d roll over in his sleep and they’d just become lost in the bed sheets or something.

He’d spent the night trying and failing miserably to sleep on the floor.

When Hinata had woken up the next morning he’d snorted and said that Kageyama should have just slept on _his_ bed, then it would have broken even or something.

Like Kageyama stood a chance in hell of sleeping with a blanket and pillow saturated with Hinata’s honey-and-sunshine-and-volleyball-sweat scent.)

All in all though –

This wasn’t _one_ failed test. Well, it was. But it wasn’t.

No, it was a message from god or the universe or maybe even Oikawa that Kageyama couldn’t go on like this. One failed test because of his preoccupation with Hinata could easily become two. And then they’d just multiply like rabbits and never stop until Kageyama was fifty years old living in the sewers and wondering where it all went wrong, and yeah, probably _still_ dreaming of Hinata at night.

He crumpled the test up into a ball and took a deep breath.

He was going to have to deal with this, and deal with it now.

And there was only one way he knew how.

.

When he got home from class Hinata was sitting at his desk spinning idly around in his chair, munching on the end of his pen with a little too much vigor. He looked up the second the door closed behind Kageyama and the smile he gave him – even with a tube of plastic wiggling in his mouth – was so blinding Kageyama would probably need prescription sunglasses in the future.

“You’re late,” Hinata said accusingly but somehow still cheerfully. “I was starting to think that professor of yours ate you like the witch she is.”

“Close enough,” Kageyama muttered under his breath as he dumped his bag, the memory of the twenty minute lecture he’d just received still pretty fresh in his mind. There was just no way to tell somebody that the reason you’d failed a test was because your roommate was so unnaturally attractive that you were eighty per cent certain they’d been genetically altered.

Hinata frowned, opening his mouth again, and Kageyama talked over him before he lost his nerve. “I need to talk to you. About – um – stuff. It’s important.”

The squeaking of Hinata’s chair stopped as he stilled, peering up at Kageyama with concerned eyes although the effect was slightly ruined by the fact he’d apparently forgotten about the pen he was slowly waggling between his teeth.

And yep. Kageyama was starting to suspect he had a thing about Hinata’s mouth. Like it wasn’t bad enough he had a thing about him as a whole already.

Kageyama took in a deep breath, shifted his gaze to the ceiling, folded and then refolded his arms when the first position didn’t feel comfortable, and said, about as measuredly as he could: “I think I should move out.”

The silence around him was positively deafening. All he could hear was the sound of his own heartbeat booming loudly in his ears. He didn’t dare look at Hinata.

“It’s – I think I should be focusing more. On, um, school. And things. And I guess having my own space would be good. For that. Not in general. Just for the – you know – studying. Space is good for study.” Kageyama winced. “I mean… privacy? No, that’s… What I’m trying to say is –.”

“You want more privacy?” Hinata’s voice was kind of wheezy. Like when somebody pelted him in the gut with a volleyball. Only Hinata usually laughed that off and he wasn’t laughing now. “Am I being a bad roommate or something? If I’m doing something that makes you uncomfortable, I can stop. Is this because I drank your milk box the other day?” Hinata’s voice wasn’t just breathless anymore; it was near frantic, edging closer and closer to hysteria with every word that came out of him. “Or because I dropped your toothbrush in the toilet? I promise, I washed it super good. Like, with disinfectant and stuff. It’s probably cleaner than it was before and –”

 _He dropped my toothbrush in the toilet_? Kageyama thought dazedly for a minute before he glanced down at Hinata, but the look on his face – complete and abject horror – sent any thought that wasn’t directly related to the conversation spiraling away.

“Hinata!” Kageyama blurted, and his own voice was at least as high as Hinata’s. Hinata flinched backwards like he’d told him to shut-up or something, and he looked so miserable that Kageyama felt like he should probably just go and turn himself in at the nearest police station because surely that was illegal. “This isn’t about that – my milk or my toothbrush or… whatever.”

Hinata hesitated; biting at his lip as he _finally_ let the pen drop back to his desk. Kageyama couldn’t believe he’d gotten that whole spiel off with the thing wedged up in there. “Then… is this because… You know?”

Kageyama frowned. “What?”

Hinata was looking down at his lap now, fingers tangling together to knot up in an accurate representation of what Kageyama’s insides currently felt like. “You hadn’t said anything, so I thought it was okay, but if it’s making you uncomfortable I’ll… I’ll stop. With the sleeping on your bed, and the shirtless and the, you know, everything.”

Kageyama was in the ninth circle of confusion hell right now. _At least_. Because that was _exactly_ what the problem _was_ ; only Hinata wasn’t meant to _know_ … Hinata was just being Hinata and that kind of stuff was what he did and _why was he doing that stuff with deliberate intent, obviously he must have known how it was affecting Kageyama if he could list it off so easily –_

“What’s going on,” Kageyama said flatly, because everything inside him right now was completely and utterly broken and he was either going to cry or stop functioning altogether, the jury was out on which one was coming first though.

“I’m sorry,” Hinata said, and _oh god was he crying his eyes looked way too wet and Kageyama still didn’t know what was happening_. “I knew how you felt, but I just thought I could… I don’t know. Make you feel the same, I guess? It was stupid. I’ll stop – I’ll do whatever you want. Just, please don’t move out. I didn’t mean to ruin things.”

Kageyama’s first thought was _you knew I’m ridiculously in love with you and ninety per cent of your day-to-day functions turn me on_? but the last half of Hinata’s dewy-eyed sentence was… incompatible with the rest.

“I… I don’t think you understood me. I legitimately do not know what is going on right now.” Kageyama stared cautiously at Hinata. “Are… are you crying?”

“ _No_ ,” Hinata said aggressively, scrubbing across his face with his arm, before peering over it with red squinted red eyes at Kageyama. “What do you mean you ‘don’t know’?”

Kageyama shrugged helplessly. “I… don’t know what you’re talking about. At all.”

It was quiet for a moment and then Hinata:

“I’ve been in love with you for years. I thought you knew.”

For a second it felt to Kageyama like everything around him stopped – the air, his body, _time_ – and then it started again at warp speed.

“You _what_?”

This time Hinata shrugged, and he looked _suspicious of all damn things_. “I thought you knew. I thought you were just… ignoring it.”

“ _How would I know?”_ Kageyama asked, and his voice didn’t sound like his own – it was doing that sped-up thing _everything_ around him was doing.

“You started acting different around me the same time I realized I liked you! I thought you figured it out and were trying to spare my feelings!” Hinata didn’t look suspicious anymore. He looked at least as mortified as Kageyama felt.

“Don’t you think if I knew about it I would have _said_ something?”

“I don’t know!” Hinata snapped, and oh god, Hinata had just said he loved him too and here they were shouting at each other like they were fifteen all over again and –

“Are you telling me,” Kageyama whispered hoarsely, “we could have been dating for _years_ now?”

“I –.” Hinata froze, mouth dropping and eyes blowing wide. “What?”

“For _years_ ,” Kageyama hissed, and he was edging closer to Hinata now, because he sort of felt like in the past few minutes Hinata had given him tacit permission to touch him, and Kageyama had literal years – _years, years, years_ – of that bottled up inside him. “We could have been together since high school. _Early_ high school.”

“What?” Hinata said again, but this time it warbled at the end, like he was saying it but not feeling it. “Are you saying –.”

“Hinata,” Kageyama said, and if he were the kind of person that knew how and when to laugh, he might have just burst with it all, “I’ve liked you since we were first years.”

Hinata stared at him for a moment. “Oh my god,” he said; and then he launched himself at Kageyama so fast that he was knocked back a step or six and right onto Hinata’s bed.

There were hands everywhere – pulling at his shirt, sliding up past his shoulders to tilt his face upwards so Hinata could kiss his cheeks, his forehead, his nose, his chin – and Kageyama’s hands were on Hinata’s waist, Hinata smack solid on Kageyama’s lap, legs either side of his hips, and in the last four years it felt he couldn’t possibly have grown at all because he was as light as ever.

“You don’t understand,” Hinata said fervently between each flutter of his lips on Kageyama’s skin, and he was dazed, so completely bewilderingly happy and confused, that he nearly missed the words. “I’ve wanted to do this for so long – _so long_.”

“Me too,” Kageyama wheezed, because Hinata may have been light, but he still jumped with all the power of a jet taking off and he’d kind of copped that right in the chest, but he was working on containing the pain because it’d probably be unromantic to call a time-out to their moment to go and crumple on the floor and whimper until he got his breath back. “For – for ages. Ever.” Words were hard, but he squeezed his fingers into Hinata’s skin, hoping to convey just what he meant to him from touch alone.

It seemed to work because Hinata whimpered – and it sounded positively gorgeous in a way that Kageyama’s whimpering wouldn’t have – and finally bent down to kiss him full on the lips.

It was – well, it was sort of uncomfortable.

Kageyama was still out of breath, and his back was numb from where he’d hit the bed, and Kageyama was lying flat while Hinata was sitting in his lap, and there was the height difference… Their noses bumped too, not horrendously enough to make his eyes water, but _noticeably_.

It was apparent that neither of them had ever kissed anyone before. Too much pressure, too wet, a slightly bumpy meshing of their lips…

It was everything Kageyama had ever wanted this to be. Not how he’d imagined it in his perfect, sinuous daydreams, but _perfect_.

It was even better when Hinata pulled back and Kageyama got a glance of his bright red face, breaths coming out wetly between slick lips. When he bent down to kiss him again they both managed to tilt their heads to the right angles and it went better than the first.

“I love you,” Kageyama gasped when he finally managed to get his breath back, the words gusting out of him and leaving him slightly shaky. He’d wanted to say them for so long, had thought them so many times when Hinata would smile at him or the court or _anything._

 _He’d wanted this for so long_. Not the kiss, or the press of Hinata over him – although that too – but the _relief_ of knowing that it was all okay; he’d wanted to rid himself of the weight of those words and everything they meant, and now that he had he felt so light he was almost dizzy.

 _This is how Hinata must feel when he flies_ , he thought and Hinata didn’t say anything back, just made a frustrated, impatient noise against his lips and pulled him up with strength Kageyama didn’t know he possessed to kiss him again and again.

(Later that night though, when they were sore and pleased and kissed-out, he did. He said it soft and quiet in a way that wasn’t like his usual endless energy and everything in Kageyama had gone hot and he’d held him close and known that he wanted to hear those words a thousand, a hundred-thousand, times again.)

.

He called Oikawa the next morning – slightly after six, half because he still wanted some justice for the way he’d hung-up on him, and half because the desire to share the news was making him hot-blooded and edgy.

He picked up on the very last ring. “Tobio, I love you, but I swear –.”

“Hinata and I are dating,” Kageyama said, blurted practically, and behind him Hinata’s shoulders (shirtless) stirred in bed (Kageyama’s). “He likes me, and I like him, and none of it is thanks to you because your advice is terrible.”

Oikawa laughed at him just like Kageyama knew he would and Kageyama hung-up – he’d have a proper call with him about the new developments later, this had just been bragging rights – and crawled back into bed with Hinata where he belonged.  

**Author's Note:**

> oh my god, I didn't realize until after I finished that this could fall under miscomunnication and I hope it's still alright because I just wanted the boys to be dorks together because they're so awkward and don't know how to talk about how they feel. 
> 
> (Also I'm so bad at doing anything short and this is my fourth attempt at this, I don't know why I had so much trouble getting thought to paper, but I hope it's enjoyable at least a little <3)

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [You're an effort in translation by Yuu_chi [Podfic]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10910781) by [Rhea314 (Rhea)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rhea/pseuds/Rhea314)




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